Background

On 23 December 2003, the United Nations General Assembly at its 58th session adopted resolution A/RES/58/217, initiated by the Republic of Tajikistan. In accordance with the resolution, the period 2005 – 2015 was declared as the “International Decade for Action “Water for Life”.

The main goal of the Decade was to promote efforts to fulfill international commitments made on water and water-related issues by the year 2015.

These commitments also included the development goals contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration and particularly to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Another important goal of the Decade was to develop by 2015 plans for integrated water resource management and water-use efficiency in rendering assistance to developing countries.

Being the initiator of the Decade, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan has taken a number of measures at national, regional and global levels for its successful implementation. With this view, the Government of Tajikistan, in cooperation with the United Nations and other international organizations, organized the following important international water-related events:

International Conference on Regional Cooperation in Trans-Boundary River Basins on 30 May – 1 June 2005, Dushanbe;

International Conference on Water Related Disasters Reduction on 27-29 June 2008, Dushanbe;

High-Level International Conference on midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, 2005-2015, on 8-10 June 2010, Dushanbe;

High Level International Conference on Water Cooperation on 20-21 August 2013, Dushanbe.

Since the year 2015 terminates the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”, a comprehensive assessment of the activities carried out during this period, identifying the difficulties and problems in the implementation of the goals of the Decade, as well as planning further activities for the post — 2015 period is of crucial importance.

To that end, on 19 December 2014 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/69/215, entitled “International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015, and further efforts to achieve the sustainable development of water resources”, calling upon member countries, UN system institutions, including the “UN-Water” and other organizations, to comprehensively evaluate progress achieved in the implementation of the Decade and continue taking steps for achieving internationally agreed water-related goals, including those indicated in the outcome document of the Rio+20 Conference, entitled “The Future We Want”.

The resolution also implies the convening of the two important events:

High-Level Interactive Dialogue of the Sixty-Ninth Session of the General Assembly in New York within the week after the World Water Day on 22 March 2015 for the purposes of a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the implementation of the Decade, including best practices and lessons learned relevant to the achievement of sustainable development; and

High-Level International Conference on the implementation of the International Decade in June 2015 in Dushanbe.